Georgetown University Law Center Wednesday, 4/22/09, Washington, DC

An all-day symposium April 22, 2009, at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, brought together many of the attorneys whose work to create the Violence Against Women Act is narrated in Part 5 of Equal, including Vice President Joseph Biden (see my article in the New Republic of September 2008). I'm spoke on a mid-day panel, following two of the law professors and one of the judges whom I interviewed when reporting Equal.

Vice President Biden's continuing commitment to reducing violence against women showed strongly in his 40-minute talk to about 200 people in attendance. Most substantively, Biden announced that he is, working with President Obama, nominating a woman to a position in the Justice Department to work on violence issues and also report directly to Biden in the White House in order "to make sure our commitment stays unyielding." Although Biden said he could not disclose the nominee's name because she still was going through vetting, he told the law professors and judges gathered at Georgetown for this "Symposium Celebrating the 15th Anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act" that "you'll all like her, very much. You'll know her." Biden was speaking to many of the professors and judges whom Biden relied on at key moments while he was shaping the Violence Against Women Act and who had traveled to the Georgetown symposium from as far as Arizona. To hear Biden's announcement about the coming appointment, go to minute 31 of Biden's 4/22/09 Georgetown Law speech (available as web video via Georgetown University Law Center <https://www.law.georgetown.edu/webcast/eventDetail.cfm?eventID=807> ) -- or listen to the full speech for a passionate presentation of Biden's current thinking about how to address violence against women, in the United States and beyond. -- Fred Strebeigh

Program (with links to web video), for SYMPOSIUM CELEBRATING THE FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT AND HONORING ITS CHAMPION, VICE-PRESIDENT JOSEPH R. BIDEN

Presented by Legal Momentum and the Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law

Claudia Bayliff, Project Attorney, National Judicial Education Program to Promote Equality for Women and Men in the Courts, Legal Momentum and former Assistant Director, Boulder County, Colorado, Rape Crisis Team

Lisalyn Jacobs, Vice President for Government Relations, Legal Momentum

Leslye Orloff, Director, Immigrant Women Program, Legal Momentum

Lynn Hecht Schafran, Director, National Judicial Education Program to Promote Equality for Women and Men in the Courts, Legal Momentum and Symposium Chair